Bibliographic Information: Brown, Monica (2011). Marisol McDonald doesn’t match. New York: Children’s Book Press.
Plot Description: Marisol is a Peruvian-Scottish-American girl who embraces all the things about her that don’t match the way other people think they should. She is a bilingual English and Spanish speaker who has brown skin and red hair (like carrots her cousin says, like fire she counters). She is an artist and a soccer player who loves to wear polka dots and stripes together and eat peanut butter and jelly burritos. Marisol may not be conventional, but she learns to be proud of who she is and the things that make her unique.
Quantitative Reading Level :Lexile Measure: AD580L, ATOS Book Level: 2.8, Interest Level: Lower Grades (K-3), AR Points: 0.5
Qualitative Reading Analysis: This is a bilingual book with the story in English on one side and Spanish on the other. The vocabulary is contemporary, familiar and conversational and the register is casual. The sentences are primarily simple and compound, with some complex phrases. The convention is straightforward and easy to understand. Text features such as bold and italics guide the reader. The theme is clear and revealed early in the text. It explores a single them that will be familiar to many readers. It is a celebration of uniqueness and encourages readers to be proud of the things that make them different. There are some references to cultural elements of Marisol’s multiple ethnicities and some of the Spanish words mixed into the English text will be unfamiliar to non-Spanish speakers, but they are explained or simple to understand from the context of the story. The use of Spanish words mixed into the English text shows the reader the two sides of Marisol that are mixed into one, thus she sometimes speaks in English or Spanish and sometimes in both.
Content Area: English, Language Arts, Spanish
Content Area Standard: English Language Arts Standards for Reading: Literature
Key Ideas and Details: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
Curriculum Suggestions: Have the class mark a world map with the countries their ancestors are from. Have the students make a puzzle of the different interests that make them who they are, illustrating their preferences on a puzzle template, such as favorite hobbies, books, what they want to be when they grow up, etc. Have students find the Spanish equivalent to vocabulary from the story, using the book to help them. Students read another Marisol McDonald book and compare and contrast the key details of the two stories.
Supporting Digital Content:
http://www.monicabrown.net/files/MarisolActivityKit.pdf
http://www.leeandlow.com/images/pdfs/marisol_tg.pdf
http://www.readerkidz.com/2011/11/22/marisol-mcdonald-doesnt-match-by-monica-brown/
Awards: Award Winners-Pura Belpré Award/Honor Book; Award Winners-Skipping Stones Honor Award
Character names/descriptions: Marisol a young Peruvian Scottish American who embraces the things that make her unique.
High interest annotation: Everyone tells Marisol that she doesn’t match, but she doesn’t let that get her down, she allows her uniqueness to shine.
msthayersbookguide 